Hello all! My name is Jake Leuzzi and I am senior IMM major with a minor in COM. My passion include content creation, digital storytelling, and artistic films. For my senior thesis project my goal and ambition is to create my longest feature-film to date. Hoping to be in the 10-20 minute range I want to go with a cinematic artistic direction. The plot’s foundation highlights mental health specifically anxiety and depression. The anxiety stemming from my primary actor is going to focus on eating and body image. This topic is highly relatable for men and woman across the board and is something I feel people don’t highlight or talk about enough. The primary goal is to create a cinematic film that brings the viewer into a life of someone who struggles with irrational mental battles, aiming to make mental diseases more easily understandable for the general public. As well as a relatable piece of work for the people who do struggle with mental health.
This is a huge project undertaking, thankfully I have a lot of strengths. I am very confident in my capability as a director, filmmaker, and editor. Along with having all the necessary tools and gear to create a film at this scale. I am not worried about budgeting all for this video because I have all the gear I would need for the budget level film I am seeking to make.
Currently I am working on developing a direction for the film and outlining my thoughts as they occur to me. Over the next few weeks I want to develop a shot list/storyboard to have a clear direction of where I want to go with this film. This storyboard will be like a wireframe of the entire film that helps me get the fundamentals of my vision. Through the process of filming I will let my creative energy take over and film shots that I think will help add cinematic and emotional effect to the film.
There are definitely a few challenges I plan on facing during the development of this project, which I of-course intend on overcoming. I typically spend anywhere from 20-40 hours just editing a 3 minute video so shooting for 15+ is going to be a very large undertaking. I am a bit worried about balancing a full load of classes, independent work, and social life when taking on this project but that challenge excites me! I feel like this project will push me far out of my comfort zone and force me to grow in ways that some other projects may not. Also by the end of the project I will have a piece of work I spent almost an entire year on and plan on submitting to film festivals across the globe.
PS.
For anyone who is interested in some of the visionary work I have created check out my youtube and website
Hey Jake,
I just wanted to say that I love your thesis idea and I 100% agree that mental health specifically anxiety and depression isn’t shined upon a lot. I wish there were more media/films that revolved around this and I’m glad to say that you are choosing this as your focus. I want to break the stigma about mental health and I believe that your film will sure help in the process.
I guess my advice I have for you is don’t let the fear overtake you and just do what you are doing. Yes managing your time will be a struggle and this will definitely be a weight on your shoulder but I believe you have what it takes to pull through. It might be frustrating in the process but you have a set goal in mind, which is submitting your film in a film festival. As long as you keep that goal in the back of your head I think this will help you to be motivated to finish. Although you mentioned that you intend to overcome this obstacle and finish this project, having a 10-20 min film, I would say just in case maybe have a backup plan if things aren’t working out in your favor. My suggestion would be to possibly reduce the duration of your film or maybe simplify the shots you plan to take, as a backup plan.
I wish you the best of luck and I’m excited to see the final results as well as your progress with the film 🙂
Good Luck!!
Hi Jake,
First, I wanted to say that I think this topic is definitely commonplace in today’s society and is not talked about or highlighted enough. A short, cinematic feature can be a great way to get your message across while being relatable and transparent.
When I was reading about your concept, I was imagining a documentary style film with you talking directly with people that have struggled with body image and other mental health issues. I think this will increase relatability and be instrumental in showcasing the reality of these topics to your audience. I think you should definitely spend some time collecting a list of people you could talk to or sources you could mention in the film which can assist in the creation of your storyboard.
In addition, I would consider who you want your target audience to be whether it is specific, like college students, or more broad, like young adults. This would be crucial to know before you choose other aspects of your film like setting, characters, tone.
Lastly, I don’t know if you are tied to the idea of creating a short film about body image. However, I do think a film about mental health during the pandemic could be really relevant to today’s society. If you want to take a more narrow approach, you could even talk about how the pandemic has affected people’s eating disorders or body image.
Overall, I can tell you really care about your craft and want to make an impactful film, and I think you are on the right track in doing so.
Good luck!
Hi Jake!
First, I wanted to say that I think this topic is definitely commonplace in today’s society and is not talked about or highlighted enough. A short, cinematic feature can be a great way to get your message across while being relatable and transparent.
When I was reading about your concept, I was imagining a documentary style film with you talking directly with people that have struggled with body image and other mental health issues. I think this will increase relatability and be instrumental in showcasing the reality of these topics to your audience. I think you should definitely spend some time collecting a list of people you could talk to or sources you could mention in the film which can assist in the creation of your storyboard.
In addition, I would consider who you want your target audience to be whether it is specific, like college students, or more broad, like young adults. This would be crucial to know before you choose other aspects of your film like setting, characters, tone.
Lastly, I don’t know if you are tied to the idea of creating a short film about body image. However, I do think a film about mental health during the pandemic could be really relevant to today’s society. If you want to take a more narrow approach, you could even talk about how the pandemic has affected people’s eating disorders or body image.
Overall, I can tell you really care about your craft and want to make an impactful film, and I think you are on the right track in doing so.
Good luck!
Hi Jake,
I just wanted to say that I like your thesis project because it is incredible to be able to tell a story through film. But not only tell a story but also showing the struggles of mental health. I can relate to this because I am also doing a video for my thesis and telling my story of life as an immigrant in America. My goal for this video as I’m sure is the same as yours is to convey what life as in immigrant is like and the struggles they go through. Just as your goal is to convey mental health issues so it can be more understanding to people.
You mentioned that you are worried about balancing out school work, life and then editing. My advice to you is just time management. Set time each day to editing whatever clips you have. My biggest problem is procrastinating, I usually leave editing until the end when I have all my clips but i have found that constantly editing on the few clips you have goes a long way.